Of Recovering Private Yahoo

I have been trying without success to log into my Yahoo account which is more or less my personal primary email account. I have had it for frankly quite a long long time, it was my second email address after I forgot my first username completely (something ridiculously pretentious like Representingtillforever2 I presume) or maybe it got deactivated because servers would automatically delete your account if you did not log in for a certain period of time, we will never know.

Email account creating used to be such a big deal back then and some people even paid to get it done (I was paid once or twice to do said procedure). I wouldn’t blame them the process could easily take 2 hours on the internet partly due to slow internet in a net café and you had to complete an online form that required more details than a VISA application procedure. The form would not submit if even a single field was left blank then you’d have to start all over again, (Field cannot be blank) not to mention the tricky ZIP Code bit. Zimbabwe has no Zip Codes on addresses, so you had to pick a different country, make up an address that had a ZIP Code and not only that it had to be the correct one for said state. I had a fictitious Boulevard in Beverly Hills 90210 address.

So enter the second email address I ever created. Thinking this time I would do it right, a proper username and password, made sure I logged in regularly (every 3months) even if I had few people to email and even fewer who emailed back, mostly chain messages, spam and notifications from Hi5.

I even suffered through that ghastly change from Yahoo Mail Classic to Introducing Yahoo Beta.

And here we are easily 15 years later and I cannot log in to my Yahoo email address because the silly thing keeps saying either my username or my password is invalid.

How am I supposed to know which one is invalid: Guessing games

Password or username?

Why be so secretive about it?….

I tried so many times the account got locked and was advised to log in via desktop. (Had been trying on my phone all along, guess its not as smart as its makers claim)

I can only come up with 3 explanations:

I got hacked and somebody changed my password.

A bug or glitch in the system

Or maybe neither is wrong and the system is simply punishing me for negligence after my migration to “thatother email service” because it’s easier to setup and it syncs with my wickedly clever phone, apps, contacts and cloud storage at the click of a button (less of a click and more of the tap of a screen icon but that’s neither here nor there)

Anyhow finally I got to password reset options.

After a most interesting journey through memory lane as I struggled to answer security questions younger me thought I would always remember:

My second name…

My best friend…

My first grade teacher…,

My favourite musician …

What do I have in my pockets…

I almost failed the “easy” security questions for the answers were certainly more than they seemed. I had to pause and applaud the sheer genius that is the mysterious ways young me thought, I can’t write the answers here for security reasons obviously (I will however tell you that I do not have a second name and field cannot be left blank)

Know this though, anyone else, who isn’t me, who doesn’t know me as well as I know myself, would have failed the security questions but then that kinda is the whole point.

*smug look*

And FYI I just changed the security protocol for the new password recovery options so don’t be getting any ideas.

Ok finally got to password recovery settings:

Please create a new password.

*And if the password is weak it refuses to let you proceed (whats the deal, I mean its my password I understand the risk of it being easy to hack let me be but noooooo password too weak it insists)

…and for all we know the demands on the requirements for a strong password might as well as read:

Your password must contain at least 8 characters,

one of those a capital letter,

one a numeric character,

a verb,

an adjective,

a noun,

a mysterious symbol,

an element from the periodic table

and a plot containing a schizophrenic insomniac ending with a surprising twist,

For your: “Convenience” and “Security”

And that is why I will probably forget my new password and why I most likely won’t remember it once I log out.

Till the next time

~B

PS I just remembered I don’t remember my WordPress Password and my recovery email is the yahoo one, oh boy ..so if I never post again

This is hilarious and I so feel your pain!! I would imagine that anyone who’s used a computer over the last several years has faced this same exercise in frustration. I get so mad I stage a quiet revolt against said web site or application (whatever is the cause of my angst). My answer to the password situation was to create a password protected file with passwords for each website. Personally, I think this has gotten way out of control when you have sites that really don’t require strigent safety procedures requesting ridiculous password setups – insane. Great post!!

That is an interesting solution.
I had considered having one Password like the One Ring of power to rule them all from The Lord Of The Rings… Password protected folder you say but what of those on the go moments or incase of lose of computer/laptop/phone

I always keep a pinted copy under lock and key. If there is a site that I need to get to and I can’t remember the password I have to wait until I’m either at my computer or have access to the hard copy. The only real critical ones are for my bank and those are memorized although these days with my poor memory even this could eventually become problematic but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I was so ticked off at one silly site that I used a password that went something like “ihatepasswords….” it ended up being more like a rant but then I unsubscribed from the site any way.

I guess will have to wait patiently until computer screens have a finger print sensitive touch screen interface that lets you use your fingerprint as passwords on apps and websites and folders and all things tech generally lol maybe I should patent that idea cause I only just thought of it now instead of sleeping as I should be, I can use this post as intellectual property rights right 🙂